If you come to Predators practices early, you’ll see a goaltender shifting his weight around the crease with a medicine ball in his bare hands under the watchful eye of goaltending coach Mitch Korn.

That is Carter Hutton, Nashville’s 27-year-old backup, who backstopped the Predators to a 3-2 overtime win Thursday against the Winnipeg Jets.

The goal of the drill is to help Hutton’s explosiveness across the crease, which he showed Thursday. Hutton stopped 34 of 36 Jets shots on goal.

Because of Pekka Rinne’s hip infection, Hutton will likely split time with Magnus Hellberg, who was called up from the Predators’ AHL affiliate in Milwaukee, for at least the next four weeks.

“(Hutton) has really bought into what Mitch is selling, and you saw in a number of those saves he had to be very explosive coming across and doing some of those things,” coach Barry Trotz said. “I thought he was pretty square to the puck and from a standpoint, they put a lot of rubber towards him and he handled it just fine.”

Hutton, who was signed to a one-year, two-way contract in the offseason off the recommendation of Korn. Since Hutton arrived in Nashville he has work doggedly with Korn on his conditioning and explosiveness — part of which involves those medicine ball workouts.